title: The Image Gently pediatric digital radiography safety checklist: tools for improving pediatric radiography.
abstract: Transition from film-screen to digital radiography requires changes in radiographic technique and workflow processes to ensure that the minimum radiation exposure is used while maintaining diagnostic image quality. Checklists have been demonstrated to be useful tools for decreasing errors and improving safety in several areas, including commercial aviation and surgical procedures. The Image Gently campaign, through a competitive grant from the FDA, developed a checklist for technologists to use during the performance of digital radiography in pediatric patients. The checklist outlines the critical steps in digital radiography workflow, with an emphasis on steps that affect radiation exposure and image quality. The checklist and its accompanying implementation manual and practice quality improvement project are open source and downloadable at www.imagegently.org. The authors describe the process of developing and testing the checklist and offer suggestions for using the checklist to minimize radiation exposure to children during radiography.
authors.affiliation: Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Imaging, The University of Texas Medical School, Houston, Texas; Department of Pediatrics, The University of Texas Medical School, Houston, Texas. Electronic address: susan.d.john@uth.tmc.edu.
authors.forename: Susan D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: John
authors.forename: Quentin T
authors.initials: QT
authors.lastname: Moore
authors.forename: Tracy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Herrmann
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Don
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Powers
authors.forename: Susan N
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Greg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Morrison
authors.forename: Ellen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Charkot
authors.forename: Thalia T
authors.initials: TT
authors.lastname: Mills
authors.forename: Lois
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rutz
authors.forename: Marilyn J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Goske
mesh_terms: D057189:Checklist / Q000592:standards*; D002648:Child; D006801:Humans; D061214:Patient Safety / Q000592:standards*; D010372:Pediatrics / Q000592:standards*; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D011856:Radiographic Image Enhancement / Q000592:standards*; D014481:United States
keywords: Digital radiography; checklist; children; quality; radiation dose; safety